Ellison, whose work is quite dark and clever if you can stomach his personality, wrote A Boy and His Dog as a short story. Director L.Q. Jones expanded it into the 1975 film about Vic (Don Johnson), a forager in a nuclear wasteland, and his bio-engineered telepathic dog Blood (voiced by Tim McIntire). Sex is more important than food or weapons to the crude Vic, and the smart-assed Blood helps him find women to, well, rape, until the two find an underground society, deceivingly made up to look like a suburban ‘50s utopia, populated by women who want to violate Vic in a most poetically just way.
An Axl Rose of the sci-fi sect, the abrasive and complex Ellison is hard to appreciate without wading far into geekdom. A Boy and His Dog is the easiest way for laymen to sample his style, even if it does make Dr. Strangelove seem sweet and optimistic. 11:55 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 2009 West Gray. For tickets and information, call 713-866-8881 or visit www.landmarktheatres.com. $8.25.
Fri., March 14, 11:55 p.m.; Sat., March 15, 11:55 p.m., 2008
